Ibrahim Abdulaziz Al-Assaf

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Ibrahim Abdulaziz Al-Assaf (born 28 January 1949) is a Saudi politician who has held several top government posts, including finance minister, state minister, and foreign minister. He was born in the Qassim Province in central Saudi Arabia and earned a BA in economics and political science from King Saud University in 1971, an MA in economics from the University of Denver in 1976, and a PhD in economics from Colorado State University in 1982.

Al-Assaf began his career in academia at King Abdulaziz Military Academy and then worked in Saudi development finance. He later went to Washington to represent Saudi Arabia at the IMF and World Bank, becoming alternate executive director at the IMF in 1986 and then executive director at the World Bank in 1989. Returning to Saudi Arabia in 1995, he briefly served as vice governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority before joining the Council of Ministers as minister of state.

In 1996 he was appointed minister of finance, a position he held until 2016. He then served as minister of state without portfolio (2016–2018) and, from December 2018 to October 2019, as foreign minister. He has also chaired the Saudi Fund for Development and served on the boards of Saudi Aramco and the Public Investment Fund.

In November 2017, Al-Assaf was detained in a crackdown on corruption but was cleared of wrongdoing and returned to his duties. He is married with four children; his daughter Munira is married to Khalid bin Alwaleed Al Saud. In 2019 he was replaced as foreign minister by Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.